sparrow

§English

Wikipedia

A male sparrow (Passer domesticus)

A female sparrow (Passer domesticus)

§Etymology

From Middle English sparwe, sparowe, from Old English spearwa (“sparrow”), from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, *sparwaz (“sparrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sper(w)-, *sper(g)- (“sparrow, bird”). Cognate with Dutch spreeuw (“starling”), Alemannic German Spar (“sparrow”), German Sperling (“sparrow”), Danish spurv (“sparrow”), Swedish sparv (“sparrow”), Breton frao (“crow”), Tocharian A spārāñ, Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).

§Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspæɹəʊ/, /ˈspɛɹoʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ærəʊ

§Noun

sparrow (plural sparrows)

1. The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
2. A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
3. A member of the family Emberizidae, comprising small New World songbirds.
4. Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
5. (UK, chiefly London) A quick-witted, lively person. Often used in the phrase cockney sparrow.
   • 2005, Drama Faces: Martine McCutcheon, BBC

     Professional cockney sparrow Martine has acted since childhood.

   • 1878, Ally Sloper's guide to the Paris exhibition, Charles Henry Ross, p. 54

     I take it there 's scarcely a happier fellow alive than your honest town-bred smoke-dried cockney sparrow.

§Derived terms

• sparrowhawk
• house sparrow
• tree sparrow

§Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the template {{sense|"gloss"}}, substituting a short version of the definition for "gloss".

• spadger, sparra, spuggy

§Translations

Passer domesticus — see house sparrow

bird of the family Passeridae

• Armenian: ճնճղուկ (čnčłuk)
• Catalan: pardal (ca) m
• Danish: spurv (da) c
• Dutch: mus (nl) m, f
• Faroese: spurvur m, spurv f
• Finnish: varpunen (fi)
• French: moineau (fr) m
• German: Sperling (de) m, Spatz (de) m
• Greek: πασσερίδες (passerídes)
• Hebrew: דרור m (dror)
• Irish: gealbhan (ga) m
• Italian: passero (it) m

• Maori: tiu
• Navajo: tsídiiłbáhí
• Old Norse: spǫrr m
• Polish: wróbel (pl) m
• Portuguese: pardal (pt) m
• Scottish Gaelic: gealbhonn m
• Slovak: vrabec m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wrobel m

  Upper Sorbian: wrobl m, wroblik m

• Spanish: pasérido m, gorrión (es) m

bird of the family Emberizidae

• Armenian: դրախտապան (draxtapan)
• Dutch: gors (nl) m, f
• Finnish: sirkku
• French: bruant (fr) m

• Hungarian: sármány (hu)
• Polish: trznadel (pl) m
• Portuguese: escrevedeira f

generically, any small, nondescript bird

• Catalan: pardal (ca) m
• Finnish: pikkulintu (fi)
• French: piaf (fr) m

• Portuguese: passarinho (pt) m
• Spanish: pájaro (es) m
• Welsh: aderyn (cy) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Afrikaans: ^{(please verify)} mossie
• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} harabeli
• Alviri-Vidari: (Vidari): ^{(please verify)} گنگوشک (gangušk)
• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} عَصْفُور m (ʿaṣfūr)
• Azeri: ^{(please verify)} sərçə (az)
• Baluchi: ^{(please verify)} جنجشک (jinjišk)
• Basque: ^{(please verify)} txolarre
• Belarusian: ^{(please verify)} верабе́й (be) m (vjerabjéj)
• Breton: ^{(please verify)} golvan
• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} врабче́ (bg) n (vrabčé), ^{(please verify)} врабе́ц m (vrabéc)
• Campidanese Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} crucculeu, ^{(please verify)} gruccùcciu m
• Chechen: ^{(please verify)} хьозий (ḥozī)
• Mandarin:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 麻雀 (zh) (máquè)

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} mus (nl) f, ^{(please verify)} huismus (nl) f
• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} pasero (eo)
• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} varblane
• Friulian: ^{(please verify)} passare
• Galician: ^{(please verify)} pardal, ^{(please verify)} gorrión
• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} ბეღურა (beḡura)
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} गौरैया m (gauraiyā)
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} spör (^{(please verify)} gráspör (is))
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} passere
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} passero (it) m
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} スズメ (suzume), ^{(please verify)} 雀 (ja) (すずめ, zuzume)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 참새 (ko) (chamsae)

• Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} چۆله‌که‌, ^{(please verify)} پاساری, ^{(please verify)} beytik (ku)
• Ladin: ^{(please verify)} spoz
• Latgalian: ^{(please verify)} zvierbuļs m, ^{(please verify)} žeigurs m
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} passer
• Latvian: ^{(please verify)} zvirbulis m
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} žvirblis m, ^{(please verify)} žvirblė f
• Low German: ^{(please verify)} Lünink, ^{(please verify)} Lünk, ^{(please verify)} Lüüntje m, ^{(please verify)} Dackfink m
• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} врабец m (vrabec)
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} għasfur tal-bejt
• Mazanderani: ^{(please verify)} میچکا
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} spurv (no), ^{(please verify)} gråspurv m
• Occitan: ^{(please verify)} passerat
• Persian: ^{(please verify)} گنجشک (fa) (gonješk)
• Romani: ^{(please verify)} chirikloro m, ^{(please verify)} chirikliori f
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} vrabie (ro) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} врабац m

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} vrabac (sh) m

• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} vrabec (sl) m
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} gorrión (es) m
• Swahili: ^{(please verify)} shomoro
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} sparv (sv) (^{(please verify)} gråsparv (sv))
• Taos: ^{(please verify)} p’į́wna
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} serçe (tr)
• Urdu: ^{(please verify)} گورییا m (gauraiyā)
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} sẻ (vi), ^{(please verify)} chim sẻ
• West Frisian: ^{(please verify)} mosk
• Gallurese Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} furfurinu, ^{(please verify)} fruffurarzu, ^{(please verify)} bulfurarju m
• Sassarese Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} furfurinu, ^{(please verify)} fruffurarzu, ^{(please verify)} bulfurarju m